|
Mass killings occurred under some Communist regimes during the twentieth century. Estimates of the death toll vary widely, depending on the methodology used. Scholarship focuses on the causes of mass killings in single societies, though some claims of common causes for mass killings have been made. Some higher estimates of mass killings include not only mass murders or executions that took place during the elimination of political opponents, civil wars, terror campaigns, and land reforms, but also lives lost due to war, famine, disease, and exhaustion in labor camps. There are scholars who believe that government policies and mistakes in management contributed to these calamities, and, based on that conclusion combine all these deaths under the categories "mass killings", democide, politicide, "classicide", or loosely defined genocide. According to these scholars, the total death toll of the mass killings defined in this way amounts to many tens of millions; however, the validity of this approach is questioned by other scholars. In his summary of the estimates in the Black Book of Communism, Martin Malia suggested a death toll of between 85 and 100 million people. As of 2011, academic consensus has not been achieved on causes of large scale killings by states, including by states governed by communists. In particular, the number of comparative studies suggesting causes is limited. The highest death tolls that have been documented in communist states occurred in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, in the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong, and in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. The estimates of the number of non-combatants killed by these three regimes alone range from a low of 21 million to a high of 70 million.〔Valentino (2005) ''Final solutions'' p. 91.〕 There have also been killings on a smaller scale in North Korea, Vietnam, and some Eastern European and African countries. == Terminology == Communist regimes "Communist regimes" refers to those countries who declared themselves to be socialist states under the Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist, or Maoist definition (in other words, "communist states") at some point in their history. Scholars use several different terms to describe the intentional killing of large numbers of noncombatants.〔Valentino (2005) ''Final solutions'' p. 9: "Mass killing and Genocide. No generally accepted terminology exists to describe the intentional killing of large numbers of noncombatants."〕〔 The following have been used to describe killing by Communist governments: *Genocide — under the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide does not apply to the mass killing of political and social groups. Protection of political groups was eliminated from the UN resolution after a second vote, because many states, including Stalin's USSR,〔Jones (2010) ''Genocide'' p. 137.〕 anticipated that clause to apply unneeded limitations to their right to suppress internal disturbances.〔Beth van Schaack. The Crime of Political Genocide: Repairing the Genocide Convention's Blind Spot. ''The Yale Law Journal'', Vol. 106, No. 7 (May 1997), pp. 2259–2291〕 *Politicide — the term "politicide" is used to describe the killing of political or economic groups that would otherwise be covered by the Genocide Convention. Manus I. Midlarsky uses the term "politicide" to describe an arc of mass killings from the western parts of the Soviet Union to China and Cambodia.〔Midlarsky (2005) ''Killing trap'' p. 310: "Indeed, an arc of Communist politicide can be traced from the western portions of the Soviet Union to China and on to Cambodia."〕 In his book ''The killing trap: genocide in the twentieth century'' Midlarsky raises similarities between the killings of Stalin and Pol Pot.〔Midlarsky (2005) ''Killing trap'' p.321.〕 *Democide — R. J. Rummel coined the term "democide", which includes genocide, politicide, and mass murder. Helen Fein has termed the mass state killings in the Soviet Union and Cambodia as "genocide and democide." Frank Wayman and Atsushi Tago have shown the significance of terminology in that, depending on the use of democide (generalised state-sponsored killing) or politicide (eliminating groups who are politically opposed) as the criterion for inclusion in a data-set, statistical analyses seeking to establish a connection between mass killings can produce very different results, including the significance or otherwise of regime type. *Crime against humanity — Jacques Semelin and Michael Mann〔Semelin (2009) ''Purify and Destroy'' p. 344.〕 believe that "crime against humanity" is more appropriate than "genocide" or "politicide" when speaking of violence by Communist regimes.〔Semelin (2009) ''Purify and Destroy'' p. 318.〕 *Classicide — Michael Mann has proposed the term "classicide" to mean the "intended mass killing of entire social classes".〔Mann (2005) ''Dark Side of Democracy'' p. 17.〕 *Terror — Stephen Wheatcroft notes that, in the case of the Soviet Union, terms such as "the terror", "the purges", and "repression" (the latter mostly in common Russian) colloquially refer to the same events and he believes the most neutral terms are "repression" and "mass killings".〔Stephen Wheatcroft. The Scale and Nature of German and Soviet Repression and Mass Killings, 1930–45. ''Europe-Asia Studies'', Vol. 48, No. 8 (Dec. 1996), pp. 1319–1353〕 *Mass killing — this term has been defined by Benjamin Valentino as "the intentional killing of a massive number of noncombatants", where a "massive number" is defined as at least 50,000 intentional deaths over the course of five years or less.〔Benjamin Valentino, Paul Huth, Dylan Bach-Lindsay, (2004), "Draining the Sea: mass killing and guerrilla warfare," ''International Organization'' 58,2 (375–407): p. 387.〕 He applies this definition to the cases of Stalin's USSR, the PRC under Mao, and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, while admitting that mass killings on a smaller scale also appear to have been carried out by regimes in North Korea, Vietnam, Eastern Europe, and Africa.〔Valentino (2005) ''Final solutions'' p. 91〕 *Communist holocaust — the United States Congress has referred to the mass killings collectively as "an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust"〔Congress (US), (1993), (''Friendship Act'' (HR3000) ) p. 15, s. 905a1.〕 while the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation established by the United States Congress refers to this subject as the "Communist holocaust".〔Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, (n.d.), "(History of Communism )," online: Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, §"A Moral Blind Spot".〕 The term "Red Holocaust" has been used by German historian Horst Möller; Steven Rosefielde has published a book on this subject titled ''Red Holocaust''.〔Rosefielde (2009) ''Red Holocaust''〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「mass killings under communist regimes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|